HEROES

This is sort of a first. No rant as such for this post.
After a conversation in a public house, a question was asked during the evening which intrigued me, and which is the topic of this post.

Do we really need heroes?

Human beings have such a long childhood, in comparison to most other animals, which are born and ready to produce offspring of their own, in the time frame of only a couple of years. The reason humans have a long childhood is to learn.
Since we learnt to walk upright all those many millions of years ago, our bones had to move and change position, such as the hips and the pelvis during the process of evolution. This was to allow the female to walk upright.
This presented a problem for the newborn offspring as smaller pelvis means a smaller gap for its head to pass, so it needs to be smaller. In doing this, the child is pretty helpless when born. Not like gazelles of Africa, which can walk and bound around sometimes under an hour after being born.

The helplessness of the newborn human is not necessarily detrimental, as this means it needs a long childhood before it can be developed enough to produce offspring of its own. This time is spent learning and taking in its surroundings, and obviously mentors and role models are crucial. Mothers, fathers and family members often fill this role.

So everyone needs role models else we would learn nothing and certainly the infant mortality rate would be at 100% without a doubt.
Who we choose as a role model or a hero is important too.

Celebrities are heroes and heroines to millions around the world. Some do good things and others do wrong things and are dangerous role models to have.

No doubt you have noticed the picture at the top of this post, some faces you will recognise some you will not.

I will name each of the people depicted and write briefly why they feature in my list of people who I admire most.

They are in no particular order.

First of all in the top left of the picture is Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, presenter of channel four’s “river cottage” series, a TV chef that left the city in search of the simple life and living as naturally possible. He campaigned for decent food in diet long before Jamie Oliver upset fat kids and neglectful parents.
Hugh is a bit of a buffoon sometimes on his programmes but he always gets the job done and isn’t afraid of trying, which is why he is in my heroes list.

Next to Hugh is the late Mr Bill Hicks, a true influence of mine. A rock-star- comedian if ever there was one.
Passion was injected in to every one of his performances and he didn’t take any crap from anyone, even from his own audience. He parodied politics, music and entertainment. He opened the eyes of fat America to the suffering of the world.
He could be summed up simply by the phrase “harsh but fair.”
Bill Hicks died in February 1994 of cancer.

Second from the right, is Jacob (Bruno) Bronowski.
A Jewish man born in Poland and became a mathematician and then researched anthropology to solve a maths problem in humans beings. By doing this he realised that he had Chronicled human history right back to its dawn. “The Ascent of Man” was the title of his book, which then became a fantastic 13 part television series of thirty years ago. Having fled Poland in the thirties he returns in his series to a derelict concentration camp and wades in to a stream where the ashes of six million Jews were flushed 30 years before. Wearing his fine shoes and trousers he speaks totally from the heart, (A rare sight of television scientists of the day) he then bends down plunges his hand into the base of the stream grabs a clump of black sludge and allows it to run through his fingers announcing “we all need to touch one another.”

Dr Jacob Bronowski died shortly after completing his monumental series.

Bottom right picture is of the only truly independent (indie) band that I know of.
Their fan base is massive, passive but always loyal.
They are, of course the Levellers.
The band formed in Brighton England in 1988, at the ass end of Thatcher’s Britain. Politically active and talented they clawed their way in to a pop-orientated chart in the early nineties with hits such as “One Way” and “fifteen Years.”
They now are their own record label and produce and distribute all their recordings themselves.
These guys are the reason I picked up a guitar, for which I will be eternally grateful.

Moving to the left again is Sir David Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS. There is no finer human being on this earth.
Sir David Attenborough was educated in Leicestershire and went on to see more of our planet than anyone else, and has shared his experiences with anyone willing to listen.
His groundbreaking series “Life on Earth” set a benchmark for documentaries to come, and has only been succeeded by other great Attenborough documentaries.
Sir David Attenborough continues to love, travel and educate the world aged 81.

Finally I come to a factious hero. Anakin Skywalker. I didn’t grow up with star wars like most children my age, the first star wars film I watched was “Episode I” aged 16. I found so many parallels between young Anakin and myself at the age of nine, both of us were full of generosity, idealism and full of potential.
I waited eagerly for three years for the next episode, knowing young Anakin’s overall fate.
I was 19 when I saw Anakin in a movie again. He was about the same age as myself and I was mocked by a few people for unintentionally looking slightly like him.
In “Episode II” Anakin was going through many of the emotional trials that I was such as love, frustration and anger.
By this time I was a huge star wars fan I followed Anakin’s Exploits in the Clone Wars, and I was working full time too.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw the first still images of Anakin in the final instalment of star wars. My hair had grown and so had his. I looked like his doppelganger.
Anakin gets used by all his Jedi colleagues and used by his friend who ends up being the most evil person in the galaxy. It seems like everyone was fighting over him, for his potential, when all he had ever been was a slave and a soldier and that’s what he remained throughout his life as Darth Vader the perfect anti hero.
Anakin’s character resonates with me because he’s a shining example of what sort of person I could have become if I made the wrong choices in life, if I thought of greed and sided with certain peoples agendas. Of course I don’t have any magical “force” powers that I know of but the parallels remain.
Anakin Skywalker died in his son’s arms in orbit around the forest moon of Endor; in the year I was born 1983. He was aged 54.

In fact a picture of George Lucas should be there instead of Anakin, as he has mentored at least two generations with his films, he has taught great moral values without the constraints of religion, in an increasingly apathetic population.

Heroes are vital in everyone’s development but it would be great if we could all be heroes to our friends, children and loved ones.